2017 Tidelines Journey Concludes

We had a wonderful time travelling through Ketchikan, Juneau, Gustavus, and Sitka last month as part of the 2017 Tidelines Journey featuring artists Nina Elder, Billy Joe Miller, Jimmy Riordan, and Wendy Given.

Our Alaskan Stories Underway

The second season of our storytelling and filmmaking program at Mt. Edgecumbe High School, Our Alaskan Stories, is now underway! 12 students are working under the guidance of local filmmaker Hannah Guggenheim - each will produce a short film about home this summer.

Sitka Story Lab: Year 3

We're wrapping up our third year of youth programming at the Island Institute! We had an exciting year, with our continued after school Story Lab sessions, the second year of Our Alaskan Stories at Mt. Edgecumbe, and visits to schools in a dozen other Southeast Alaska towns.

As the environmental noise of human impact rises alongside the internal and technological noise of modern life, what is being heard? Who is being over powered? How do we remain receptive to important signals in the face of so much noise? This April, the Island Institute will work to explore these and related questions through a traveling ferry tour with a group of artists from across the country. As the tour travels through Ketchikan, Juneau, Gustavus, and Sitka, the Island Institute hopes to foster new ways of thinking about the ways that we understand place, nature, and community.

Shannon Haugland wrote this story for the Sitka Sentinel about Island Institute poet-in-residence Nikki Zielinski. The story appeared on Oct 28, 2016.

For centuries fairy tales have been used to introduce and address difficult subjects to children and adults.

But Island Institute’s current artist in residence wondered whether the same method would work to tackle uncomfortable topics in today’s world.

“It’s interesting to see how different cultures approach those subjects,” said Nikki Zielinski, a Cleveland, Ohio, poet who has been in Sitka since mid-September. “A lot of the history of folklore and fairy tales emerged not only as a form of entertainment but also (as lessons) about the possible dangers of growing up in the world and making it through adolescence.”

As metaphorical expressions inspired by nature, Billy Joe Miller's work elicits possibilities of transformation and discovery. His practice often results in structures, shapes, light and sounds that frame and create contemplative, site-responsive spaces. Operating at an architectural scale, his projects are immersive and multi-sensory.

Jimmy Riordan splits his time between Alaska and Pennsylvania. Riordan’s practice extends beyond the bounds of any specific field or medium. His projects have involved earth building, augmented reality, letterpress and translation to name a few. All emphasizing research and Riordan's interest in the self-taught and group learning.

Wendy Given is an artist living and working in Portland, Oregon. With a production of vivid, uncanny contemporary photography, sculpture, drawing and installation, her practice stems from a profound interest guided by nature, myth and magic.

Nikki Zielinski joins us in Sitka as the 2016 Rasmuson Foundation Artist in Residence at the Island Institute. Nikki's poetry explores the ways in which experiences of violence, both overt and institutional, shape one’s perception of and interaction with their communities and environments.

Allison Warden is an Iñupiaq interdisciplinary artist born in Fairbanks, Alaska with close ties to Kaktovik, Alaska. She is also known by her rap persona, AKU-MATU. Her most recent show, “Let Glow” debuted at the Bunnell Street Art Center as part of an artistic residency in March 2014.